


a bend in the universe

by frorals



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, POC Reader, also damon is hot, tvd, tvd needs more poc characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 16:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frorals/pseuds/frorals
Summary: You meet Damon, vampires apparently exist, and you fall in love. (Not necessarily in that order.)





	a bend in the universe

**Author's Note:**

> i started watching tvd diaries and couldn't help but have lots of feels for damon, hence this fic. sorry if it's bad, i wrote it at like 2 am.

“Hi there,” a voice says from behind you.

You turn around to see a tall, raven-haired man sitting next to you. There’s a glass of liquor (vodka, maybe?) in his hand and a frustratingly handsome smirk on his lips. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. And trust me, I would’ve. This town is absurdly boring.”

“Is that so?” A smile of your own plays at your lips. “I couldn’t tell by the insane amount of people who are sober right now.”

His blue eyes glance around before landing back on you. “That’s true.” He says. “What are you drinking?” He gestures towards the glass in front of you.

“Uh, I honestly don’t know? I just asked the bartender to give me something strong.” You laugh, tucking a curl behind your ear. You feel a little nervous, because the most beautiful guy in the world is sitting less than five feet from you and is talking to you, no less.

“Trying to drown your sorrows?”

“Something like that,” you mutter.

He pauses for a moment. “Do you want to get out of here?” He asks.

You stare at him, dumbfounded. “Me?”

“No, the girl standing behind you.” He deadpans. “Yes, you.” He stands and extends a hand out to you, like some sort of prince.

“Okay,” you say, and take his hand.

And that’s how it starts. That’s the moment you meet Damon Salvatore. It’s also the moment you start falling in love with him, but you’d never admit it. Not to his face, anyways. He’s much too smug and all it would do is inflate his ego bigger than what it already is.

You two become something like best friends. He tells you about his struggling relationship with his brother and how he might be falling in love with his brother’s girlfriend, and you... well, you listen. There’s not much to say about your own life. You live alone, you have a cat, and you work at an office downtown. It all makes for a mundane life, except for Damon. He starts to hang out with you more often, popping up randomly out of the blue.

(There’s a knock at your door. Opening it, you see Damon standing there, hands in his pockets. There’s an odd expression on his face, almost like he’s anxious. It worries you, so you step forward, placing  
your hand on his cheek.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he says, removing your hand from his face. He doesn’t let go.

You look at him for a moment longer before asking, “Do you want to come in? I can make you something to eat or some tea or something?”

“Well, if you’re offering,” He says, meaning for it sound joking but it falls short.

Once he’s inside, you’re reminded of how empty the place is. It looks more like a showroom — no pictures or mementos. Damon runs his finger along an old bookshelf, his gaze turning to you. You rub your hands along your arms and say, “I’ll, uh, go get you something to drink.”

When you return, you hand him a cup of hot ginger tea.

“How is it you don’t have any pictures of family members?”

“I don’t have any. I grew up in foster care since I was six. I never lived anywhere long enough to make friends and every time I left a home, I couldn’t bring anything with me. Hence, the empty house.” You joke, gesturing around you.

He takes a sip of the tea. “Glad to know I’m not the only one with childhood trauma. My dad hated me.”

“I’m sure he didn’t hate you.”

“Well, he had a funny way of showing it.” He says. “Besides, everyone hates me a little bit. I wasn’t always a ray of sunshine.”

“I don’t hate you.”

He raises his eyebrows. “That’s because you don’t know the real me.”)

And eventually, you start seeing each other so often, that he introduces you to Stefan and Elena and sometimes the four of you hang out, even though it often ends in you and Elena complaining about the two Salvatore brothers.

(“You’re good for him, you know,” Elena says. You tear your eyes away from where Damon is talking with Stefan to look at the girl next to you. “I’ve never seen him like that with anyone else.”

“Like what?” you ask.

“Happy.”

You look back at Damon. He catches your gaze and waves. “I think he’s too good for me. I’m afraid I’ll break him.”)

Apparently, Damon has secrets of his own, that come in the form of humans with pointy teeth who drink human blood. You don’t find that out until much later, though.

(“What the fuck was that, Damon!” you shriek, pointing in the direction you’d just came from. One moment you were being attacked and the next, his arms were around you and you were safely at your house. “And how did you get me here so fast?”

“Are you okay?” He asks, holding you by your shoulders. “Is anything hurting? Or missing?”

“Damon!”

“What?”

“What was that? And why were they after us?”

“Do you want the cliffnotes or the long version?”

“Long version preferably.”

“That was a bad vampire who wants to do very bad vampire-y things to us. I’m also a vampire, but the good kind, which is why he so graciously attacked us.” He pauses to gauge your horrified expression and then says, “Wait. Please don’t freak out.”

“Oh my god.”)

He also tells you that he was alive during the Civil War and fought in the confederate army, which of course, raises some questions on your end.

(“Are you, like, racist?” You ask him, untangling your body from his. You being black and him fighting for the Confederates means there’s pressing issues that need to be sorted out. It’s something that has been eating at you the past few days and you just needed to let it out.

“No,” he glances at you. “Why?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about how you fought for the Confederacy and considering what they stood for at the time, it’s not hard to jump to conclusions.” You say.

“I’m not racist. And I didn’t believe in half of the things the Confederacy did, slavery being one of them. I mostly fought because I thought it would make my father proud of me, but it didn’t, so I left.”

He goes back to watching the tv, so you hum out an “okay,” and place your head back where it was on his chest. He wraps his arms around your shoulders.)

And after that, things definitely get interesting. You often help Damon, Stefan, and Elena and her friends with taking down evil supernatural creatures. Most instances involve stupid plans that end up with someone getting hurt and one of those times, that person was you.

(You are supposed to be the lookout — Damon was afraid of you being in the crossfire. You tried to argue, but he stood his ground saying “I’m not saying you can’t defend yourself, but I want you to be safe.” — so you are put on the perimeter of the area. If there’s any sign of a vampire, you’re supposed to text Elena who’ll alert everyone else. The plan isn’t exactly a work of art, but you figure that it will do.

Except it doesn’t.

Somehow you’re ambushed, the entire group taken by surprise. And since you’re alone and virtually defenseless, you are used as bait. Everything turns out fine, except for the few bruises and cuts left behind, and everyone accepts the loss. Besides Damon.

He takes it the hardest, which he shows by being your shadow for the next week or so. At first, it’s endearing that he’s worried about you, but then it turns from that into full on annoying. He doesn’t let you do anything on your own. He helps you down the stairs. Offers to drive you to work. It eventually gets to the point where you confront him about it.

“You don’t have to do that, Damon.”

“Do what? Look sexy while cooking?” he asks. He’s in the middle of cutting the tomatoes that he’d taken from you. He’d mumbled something about accidentally cutting yourself, as if you hadn’t been cooking for yourself for more than half your life. Huffing, you sit on the counter next to him.

“Do everything for me,” you whine, gesturing to the knife in his hand. “It’s like you’re trying to protect me from getting hurt all the time.”

He stops his cutting to look at you. His eyebrows are lowered into what you recognize as confusion. “I want to protect you, Amani. Isn’t that what people do to show someone they care?”

“I don’t need you to protect me, Damon. I’ve always been good at doing that myself. I’m fine.”

He sets the knife aside and steps between  
your legs, his firm hands on your thighs. “I’m sorry if I was ... overbearing. It’s because being a vampire heightens my senses and it’s like I feel everything a thousand percent more and you ...” He runs his hands through his hair. “You make me feel things I’ve never felt before. And that feeling of seeing you there, needing help and out of my reach, is something I never want to feel again.”

You don’t know what to say. So you try to deflect by making a joke, “Are you admitting that you’re in love with me, Damon Salvatore?”

He considers himself for a moment. “Yes, actually.” He smirks. “Probably have been for awhile, if I’m honest.”

You swear you stop breathing for a moment. “Are you serious?”

“Dead.” He says, resting his forehead against yours.

Suddenly, you pull away from him. A thousand thoughts are swirling through your head too fast to process. And Damon’s too close, too handsome, too perfect and you have to get away. So you say the first thing that pops in your head, “I think I’m out of milk.”)

And fuck.

Everything you’ve feared has come to fruition. You’ve gone and gotten your feelings tied up in another person who can just decide to give up on you anytime. The commitment of having someone love you scares you because what if they decide that you aren’t enough and throw you aside? It’s happened to you your whole life and Damon is over 175 years old so the chances of him leaving you are remarkably high. You figure it’s better to forget about him now before he can really do some damage.

Avoiding him is the method you chose. You make your coworkers tell him you called in sick, you avoid The Grill, and you make triple sure to lock your front door. Avoiding Damon becomes like a part-time job because that means you also have to avoid everyone who’s in his circle, which includes Stefan and Elena. One day, Stefan manages to catch you off guard just as you’re about to get into your car.

(“I’m sure you’re aware my brother’s been trying to find you.” He says.

“Is he?” You ask feigning innocence as you search for your keys.

Stefan sees through the act. “Why are you avoiding him?” He demands.

“I’m not avoiding him. I’ve been busy.”

“You know, I can tell when your lying.” He says. “Super hearing means I can hear your heartbeat.”

You roll your eyes. Damn vampires.

“I’m scared.”

“Of him?”

“No, of him loving me.”

“You shouldn’t be. If there’s one thing I know about Damon, it’s that he’ll protect the people he loves and he loves you. If he really thought he would hurt you, he wouldn’t have put you in this position by confessing his feelings.

“Love doesn’t have to be scary, if you let it. Damon... he’s always been difficult, but you make him better. He’s not insufferable around you.”

“So what should I do?”

“Tell him how you feel.”)

And so you do.

After your talk with Stefan, you drive to the Salvatore Boarding House. As you’re walking up the driveway, you’re aware of how nervous you are. You’re heart is nearly ready to beat out of your chest, your hands are clammy, and you’ve forgotten the five minute speech you practiced on the drive over. Poising yourself to knock, the front door is pulled open.

“Amani.”

Standing in front of you is Damon. He doesn’t look angry or confused. He just has this blank look on his face, like he’s trying to block out his emotions, but you can read him better than anyone. His eyes are saying what he won’t. He’s asking what you’re doing here, why it took you so long, and do you love me back?

You try your best to answer him.

“I know I should’ve come earlier, but I didn’t know how to react. Vampires, witches, I can take, but you being in love with me is, like, a bend in the universe. I feel like I’m not capable of giving you the love you deserve and—“

“If you’re saying no, please don’t say it out loud. I don’t think I can take it.” He breathes out. “I’ve been through this before and it’ll be easier if you don’t say it.”

You grab his hand and squeeze. “Damon, let me finish.”

He nods.

“You are the best man I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. You’re caring, and good, and entirely way out of my league, but I am willing to let fate take us wherever it decides because I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the moment we met.”

And suddenly, he’s looking at you like you’ve singlehandedly captured the entire universe in your palms because there’s admiration and love and a whole bunch of other emotions you can’t identify on his face. His smile is one worth remembering.

“I love you, too, Amani.”


End file.
